In addition, the adopted slogan “Share life, give blood”, aims to draw attention to the roles that voluntary donation systems play in encouraging people to care for one another and promote community cohesion.
There had been campaigns aiming to highlight stories of people whose lives have been saved through blood donation, to motivate regular blood donors to continue giving blood, and motivate people in good health who have never given blood to begin doing so, particularly young people. Every year, on 14 June, countries around the world celebrate World Blood Donor Day. The event serves to thank voluntary, unpaid blood donors for their life-saving gifts of blood and to raise awareness of the need for regular blood donations to ensure the quality, safety and availability of blood and blood products for patients in need.
Transfusion of blood and blood products helps save millions of lives every year. It can help patients suffering from life-threatening conditions live longer and with higher quality of life, and supports complex medical and surgical procedures. It also has an essential, life-saving role in maternal and child care and during man-made and natural disasters.
However, in many countries, demand exceeds supply, and blood services face the challenge of making sufficient blood available, while also ensuring its quality and safety. An adequate supply can only be assured through regular donations by voluntary unpaid blood donors. WHO’s goal is for all countries to obtain all their blood supplies from voluntary unpaid donors by 2020.
Today, only 62 countries get close to 100 per cent of their national blood supplies from voluntary unpaid blood donations, with 40 countries still dependent on family donors and even paid donors.
Tanzania faces acute shortages in the national blood bank due to poor collection.
However, several institutions are now at the forefront encouraging their staff members to donate blood. National statistics indicate that 80 per cent of the 432 deaths in every 100,000 Tanzanian mothers that occur every year are caused by lack of blood.
The trend in the past few years has been encouraging since an increasing number of companies were heeding the call for blood donations.
In developing countries such as Tanzania the availability of safe blood supplies is a scarce commodity and largely influenced by low participation rates amongst the citizens.
However, with all the activities that happen around the day it is imperative for individuals to realise the importance of voluntary blood donation.
Leading international hospital group Apollo is one of a number of institutions which took the opportunity to call on Tanzanians to become regular donators of blood due to the huge benefits it has on medical outcomes.
The founder and chairman of Apollo Hospitals, Dr Prathap Reddy, states: "Giving blood is easy and saves lives, the availability of an adequate blood transfusion system in the country gives a chance of life to individuals regardless of gender or age."
On average globally, there are approximately 92 million blood donations worldwide. However, the availability of safe blood is one that is of high demand especially in countries such as Tanzania.
A recent research conducted by the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) shows that the requirements for safe blood within Tanzania is at about 400,000 to 450,000 of bottles with a capacity of 450 millilitres.
In a country where key national health institutions such as Muhimbili requires 50+bottles on a daily basis the numbers represent a very dark picture.
Since blood donation is a voluntary act, Dr Reddy calls on citizens to see the benefit that regular donations will have for their fellow countrymen. Unlike other medical aspects, blood is a substance that cannot be manufactured or engineered and the only source is a voluntary donor.
_0.jpg?itok=QU87XW8D){kind=tracking}
.jpeg?itok=vCj6bCRe)
